Road or pavement.



No. 777,858. y PATENTED DEG. 2o, 1994. RLNASH.

RUAD OR PAVEMENT.

APPLICATION FILED APR. s. 190s.

NU MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented December 20, 1904.

FREDERIC J. NASH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ROAD OR PAVEMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 777,858, dated December 20, 1904. Application iiled April 6, 1903. Serial No. 151,235.

To all whom, it may concern:

Beit known that I, FREDERIC J. NASH, a citizen ofthe United States, and a resident ofthe borough of Brooklyn, city and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Roads or Pavements, of which the following is adescription illustrated by drawings.

The iirst road the civilized world knows about as the beginning of building the common road was called the Roman road, consisting of, iirst, freestone slabs resting on the ground, then concrete on the top of that, and polygonal slabs on that for a wearing-surface. The whole affair was three feet thick, consisting of more than three-fourths of its extent of concrete. These freestone slabs at the bottorn were more costly than the same bulk of concrete, and so it is evident than they in that day thought that the concrete needed protection where it rested on the soil, a conception which modern road-building has shown to be inaccurate. When Tresaguet, Telford, and Macadam came, they put down a stone base on which to put the concrete,for the very different reason that the stone base consisting of every Size and variety and density of medium-sized stones was cheaper than the concrete which is placed upon it. My present invention at once combines the advantages of both without the attendant cost and objections. I take artificial sandstone made of sand and lime, sand being the principal constituent, and preferably make it into foot-cube blocks upon which I superpose one or more heavy layers of sand concrete.. Blocks have been, and may under the present invention be, made in almost every conceivable shape; but this cube form of block used as the backbone of the road and constituting fifty per cent. of the bulk of the road and rough enough tofurnish a retainingsurface for the cement which holds the blocks together at the sides of the cubes and also rough enough to furnish retaining-points at the `tops of the cubes, so as to make them and the superposed sand concrete virtually one solid piece of homogeneous materials by the cleaving of the concrete thereto, gives a road that is Vparticularly necessary now when heavier loads are hauled along the common road than ever before in history.

In the drawings, Figure l is a cross-section of a road or pavement embodying in one preferred form the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan of the lower layer of the road or pavement.

I will describe the invention as applied, for example, toy laying upon the soil a road structure twenty-five inches thick -at the center or crown and twenty-three inches at the sides or gutters. The ground is iirst dug out and prepared to receive such pavement. Then as thelowermost layer I employ blocks a of articial sandstone, known generally as sandlime brick.77 The blocks forming the lower layer are made of any suitable sand--sea-sand as well as common quarry-sand-and mixed with a suitable quantity, preferably, of lime or alkali, as well understood, to form a binder. The granulated scoria from blastfurnaces may also be used in lieu of sand. One way of making sand-lime brick-blocks is to mix the sand with the binder wet and then mold the same into blocks or bricks in a suitable press, after which the blocks in suitable quantity are placed in ahermetically-sealed chamber and subjected to the direct action of highpressure steam containing suitable chemicals, so that by the action the hydrated lime and the silicio acid of the sand combine and form a silicate of lime, giving to the blocks their hardness and waterproof properties. This method of forming the sand lime brick is merely cited as one good way in which the same can be made. The sand-lime brickblocks are suitably laid, with regularly-placed joints between them, in suitable cement, preferably Rosendale cement. The superposed layer is preferably an intermediate layer and consists` of coarse broken pieces of such sand brick mixed with cement to form a concrete. This coarse concrete layer may be rolled or rammed down upon the foundation. The wearing-surface may be formed by a top layer c of concrete made of sand-lime brick and a suitable cement, such as Rosendale cement, slag, or Portland cement, brick-dust cement, tar, asphalt cement, or with any other suitable sticker or binder. The small pieces of sand-lime brick in the top layer c may, if desired, be replaced by small pieces of some other and refractory material, such as traprock, so forming what I may term a mosaic concrete. After it is laid down it should be rolled and smoothed, so that when the ce' ment surface is scraped away the mosaic of hard and refractory material, preferably the pieces of sand-lime brick or of the trap-rock, are exposed -to wear. In this manner a pavement or road structure is made the surface of which will have a grain that in wet weather affords a good foothold for horses. By thus constructing a pavement which consists mainly of sand throughout a more uniform and permanent pavement at a much less expenditure of money is possible than where the main structure of the pavement is made out of natural stone and the several layers are of heterogeneous nature.

A pavement or road constructed in accordance with this invention will withstand sudden and extreme ranges of temperature, dry or wet, and furnish a better foothold for the horse and give a better hold for a surface of asphalt cement, if desired, in a city pavement. Asphalt cement where used for the surface in connection with bits of the crushed sand brick will have a better hold, wear longer, and retain its natural integrity much better than where natural stone is used. The process of making the sand-lime brick is cheap and is exceedingly desirable, and preferably where clay is not to be obtained and it is evident that in the laying out of roads in a practically sandy country the sand which is removed for leveling may be formed intol sandlime brick for use in building a road composed in the main of sand particles and derivatives therefrom.

The term "block is used in its extensive meaning to cover slabs and other blocks of greatly-varying dimensions both relative and absolute, as well as cubic blocks. It is evident that any suitable superposed layer or layers may be substituted for those described.

By the term prismatic where usedin the claims I intend to include a block which may be cubical, hexagonal, or of other cross-section and in which the transverse diameter may bear any desired relation to the vertical length of the block.

I am well aware that the construction of sand-lime blocks or brick is not in itself new; but it could not be supposed from the construction of such artificial stone that any new functions or advantages would result from its cooperation in a road-bed in accordance with the present invention nor that it would dif-v fer materially from the best natural stone, but the contrary is proved to be the case. I am also aware that patents have been issued for concrete pavements having relatively large blocks loosely placed at the base with a binder and top coat superposed thereof. That is not what I desire to claim in this patent. The use of sand-lime blocks in a foundationlayer such as I have described has a peculiar-ity not shared by natural sandstones in that it is beneficially instead of detrimentally affected by frost and meteor-ic or terrestrial moisture. Secondly, when combined with a superposed layer consisting' mainly of sand. and preferably held together by silicate-of-lime binder, as described, it produces a combination road structure the properties of which are peculiar thereto and not shared by macadam or other concrete stone pavements.

I claim the following features:

l. A structure for roads and the like comprising' at least the following three layers: a lower layer consisting essentially of sand-lime brick-blocks, an upper wearing layer, and an intermediate layer of sand-lime brick concrete, for substantially the purposes set forth.

2. A structure for roads and the like comprising a lower layer of sandlime brickblocks, a superposed layer of sand-lime brick concrete and a cohesive surface layer for substantially the purposes set forth.

3. A structure for roads and the like comprising a lower layer of sand lime brickblocks laid in the cement in courses, and a superposed layer of sand-lime brick concrete, for substantially the purposes set forth.

4. A structure for roads and the like comprising the lower layer or foundation, an intermediate layer of sand-lime brick concrete in which the sand-lime brick is in the form of coarse fragments, and asuitable wearing-surface, for substantially the purposes set forth.

5. A structure for roads and the like comprising' the lower layer or foundation, an intermediate layer of sand-limeA brick concrete in which the sand-lime brick is in the form of coarse fragments, and a suitable wearing-surface, for sand-lime brick concrete, for substantially the purposes set forth.

6. A structure for roads and the like composed of a foundation of sand -lime brickblocks laid with regularly-placed joints between them, a superposed layer of irregularlyplaced and cemented coarse sand-lime brick fragments, and a wearing-surface layer, for substantially the purposes set forth.

7. A structure for roads and the like composed of a foundation of sand -lime brickblocks laid with regularly-placed joints between them, a superposed layer of irregularlyplaced and cemented coarse sand-lime brick fragments and a wearing layer of mosaic concrete, substantially for the purposes set forth.

8. A structure for roads and the like'composed of a foundation layer, an intermediate layer and an exposed top layer, the materials of all the layers being cemented together and to the adjacent layers, and being composed essentially of sand-lime brick, the pieces of brick in one layer differing in form and size IOO ITO

IZO

from those of another layer, for substantially the purposes set forth.

9. A structure for roads and the like composed of a foundation of relatively large sandlime brick-blocks laid in suitable cement, an intermediatelayer of relatively small sandlime brick derivatives and cement forming a concrete, and a surface layer secured thereupon, whereby the said foundation and the said intermediate layer differ in physical structure, but are essentially of homogeneous materials, for the purposes set forth.

10. A structure for roads and the like having in combination with a foundation, an intermediate layer, consisting mainly of sandlime brick derivatives, in which the sand-lime brick is in the form of coarse fragments, a wearing-surface comprising a mosaic cemented to the said intermediate layer, forsubstantially the purposes set forth.

11. A structure for roads and the like, having in combination with a sand-lime brick foundation, an intermediate layer, consisting mainly of sand-lime brick derivatives, a wearing-surface comprising a rocky mosaic of sandlime brick in the cement, which secures the said mosaic together and to the said intermediate layer, whereby a structure is formed having the said block foundation with a hard wearing-surface, and consisting essentially of a single homogeneous substance, namely, sandlime brick, for substantially the purposes set forth.

12. A structure for roads or the like, composed of a suitable foundation havinga Wearing-surface consisting of concrete formed of small particles of sand-lime brick, andasuitablelbinder, for substantially the purposes set fort i.

13. A foundation for roads and the like,com-

posed of sand-lime brick-blocks, in combination with a suitable wearing-surface, substantially as set forth.

14E. A structure for roads and thelike comprising at least the following three layers: a lower layer consisting essentially of closelyjoined sand-lime brick-blocks of cubical form, an upper wearing layer, and an intermediate layer of sand-lime brick concrete, for substantially the purposes set forth.

15. A structure for roads and the like oomprising a lower layer of closely-joined sandlime brick-blocks of cubical form, a superposed layer of sand-lime brick concrete anda cohesive surface layer, for substantially the purposes set forth.

16. A structure for roads and the like comprising a lower layer of closely-joined sandlime brick-blocks of cubical form laid in cement in courses, and a superposed layer of sand-lime brick concrete, for substantially the purposes4 set forth.

17. A road structure comprising afoundation course of sand-lime blocks molded into prismatic form with the adjacent edges fitted together without voids and forming an unbroken upper surface, and a superposed layer of concrete.

18. A road structure comprising a foundation of sand-lime brick-blocks fitted together Without voids and forming an unbroken upper surface, and a superposed layer of sandlime brick concrete.

19. A road structure comprising a foundation course of molded blocks fitted together without voids and forming an unbroken upper surface, and a wearing-surface of concrete containing sand-lime brick in small particles.

20. A construction for roads and the like comprising at least the following` layers, to wit: a lower layer of sand-lime blocks and a layer thereabove of sand-lime concrete.

21. A construction foi` roads and the like comprising at least the following layers, to wit: a lower layer of sand-lime blocks 'and a layer thereabove of sand-lime concrete, and a wearing-surface superposed upon the last-said layer.

22. In a road and in combination with suitable superposed layers protecting it from direct wear, a foundation layer of sand-lime blocks fitted together.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscril ing witnesses.

FREDERIC J. NASH. Witnesses:

E. VAN ZANDT, A. L. OBRIEN. 

